Dumb Luck
by Rexhunter
Summary: Rodney, a young teen struggling to find a job and support his mother, finds himself in a chance meeting with super stars, and then an accident on his very first day at his new job turns his world upside down...
1. Chapter 1

_This uses the characters from the recent movies of 2009 and 2007._

_I have no idea what I'll call this =/ you readers can suggest a name if you want._

**Chapter 1**

With, what felt like, the weight of the world on his shoulders, Rodney opened the front door of his rundown home and went straight to his mother's bedroom, which was conveniently located to the right side of the entrance hall.

"Mom?" he called, rubbing the back of his left hand with his right anxiously, glaring up at the cracked and peeling wallpaper that covered the plaster walls.

There was a lot of rustling followed by the sound of plastic clipping in place before he got a reply.

"Rodney, how'd it go?"

With a sigh, Rodney entered the room and collapsed on the neatly made bed. The cheap, and itchy fabric of the blanket irritated his skin but he didn't complain.

"They'll hold my application until an opening comes up... then they'll look into my file again and consider hiring me." he finally said, after staring at the roof for what seemed like an eternity to him.

His mother stood up, her red hair bouncing slightly as she looked down at her son, feeling guilt welling up inside of her. She sat down on the bed and ruffled Rodney's coarse, brown hair with her left hand as she spoke.

"It'll be okay Rodney, someone will hire you. I'll have to pick up a second job until then, 'tis all."

Rodney shook his head but said no more, the thought of being turned down at his fourth interview was shattering his already weakened heart.

Three years ago, his father had died of cancer, his family unable to pay the hospital bills, the man had died slowly at home, not once did he ever let Rodney see him cry, but Rodney had heard the once proud man. Heard him late at night when he thought his son was asleep.

The day they found the man dead had broken Rodney's heart and had been the final trigger that had caused him to cut social ties with the few people he'd even remotely liked. He was a loner, spending most of his time helping his mother or trying to get a job to help pay the debts his mother struggled with.

His mother got up suddenly and smiled.

"Come on honey, cheer up. Why don't you go relax in your room while I prepare dinner eh?"

Rodney seemed to consider it for a moment, though really he had decided he'd do it the moment she said it. Then finally nodded and slowly rose up from the bed, feeling blessed to be off the itchy fabric at last.

As his mother banged around the kitchen cupboards for her cooking gear, Rodney stared at the ceiling of his bedroom, the cracks in the painted plaster clearly visible. The entire house was falling apart around them.

Rodney had, so many times before hand, attempted to convince his mother to buy the materials to fix the house. But it always came down to the lack of money his mother had. That had been what had ultimately forced him to give up his dream of college and attempting to get a job while the college money got put to, what he beleived was, a better use.

Rodney rolled over on the worn mattress, the ancient metal springs that held it all up groaned in protest until Rodney fell still again.

Across the room sat a beaten desk that'd been moved from the study for Rodney's school work. Upon the notched and scarred surface lay papers and a few pens.

Finally, he got up and dusted his pants off before he walked from his room and out into the kitchen.

His mother was balancing plates on her left arm and struggling to hold a pot full of boiling water in the right. Rodney quickly took the pot without a word and put it in the sink.

As she placed the plates on the bench she admired her son as he rushed about, getting their dinner ready without needing to be asked.

The next morning, Rodney sat at the table, drying his hair with a coarse towel while his mother shared out the last of the cereal between them. His grey eyes seemed to shift to blue as the bowl of flakes was put in front of him, with an extra generous helping of milk.

While his mother's back was turned, he swapped his bowl with hers, finding she had half as much milk as he did.

Without a word he began to eat the bland flakes. His right hand shoveling the spoon into the bowl while he traced cuts in the table surface with his left hand out of habit.

His mother returned with a clean spoon of her own and stared down at the bowl.

"Rodney..." she started, her eyes focusing on his, her hands moving down to her hips.

Rodney shrugged, not trying to fight the blame. Instead he polished off his bowl then got up, sliding his chair back under the table again before going straight to the sink to rinse the bowl off.

As he draped the damp towel over the back of the chair he'd sat on, he looked down at his mother.

"I'm going to check the notice board, maybe someone picked up my resume."

With that, he pushed off and collected his shoes from his bedroom, closing the door, ignoring its groan of protest. He heard the sound of metal hitting ceramic and smiled before he walked out through the front entrance hall and opened the heavy front door.

A blast of spring air hammered him in the face, the smell of the tulips from the family across the street's house was heavy in the air as he closed the door behind him and carefuly threaded his way through the gnarly bushes of his front lawn. With a clanging sound that echoed around the street, he shut the gate and began walking into town. A thirty minute walk that'd keep his mind off the depression that was slowly sinking in.

Rodney felt the rays from the sun soak into his skin, the warmth spread over his body and he started to feel cheerful.

Pushing a drooping branch of a Willow growing in someone's front garden, he began to jog down the path, weaving his way through a group of Elementary school kids who were playing kickball in the street.

He turned left at the curb and made his way down the main road towards town.

Upon arriving in town, Rodney had decided to cut through the mall to save time. The agency was across the road from the northern most exit, so he'd save a few minutes.

As he made his way past the crowds of girls and families hovering around the clothes and toy stores, he smiled, the hustle and bustle of the mall helped keep his mind of depressing matters, keeping him chipper and energetic.

To keep out of the crowds in the food court, Rodney moved into the maze of tables and chairs, threading his way through them with care not to knock a table that was occupied.

He could smell the grease and had to keep his mouth shut firmly to avoid from drooling. It'd been years since his last junk food meal. He suddenly slipped on spilt smoothie and had to throw his arms out to grab the tables on his left and right to keep from falling on his back in the mess.

With a grunt, Rodney held himself like that, moving his left foot back so he could get up again, he put it down but it slipped out from under him causing him to release the left table in surprise.

But before he could fall back into the sticky mess beneath him, a firm hand caught his and held him up.

"Come on," an adult voice said behind him, another hand getting a hold of Rodney under his left arm.

With a push, Rodney was lifted up and standing on the other side of the spilt drink.

"Thanks sir," Rodney said, making sure none of the sticky liquid had gotton on his pants before he looked up.

Standing before him was a man in his early thirties, plain white shirt and tan trousers. His hairline receded back into a crescent moon shape while the bulk of his dark brown hair was a mere inch long.

"Are you okay?" a high pitched voice asked, causing Rodney to turn his attention to the table.

Sitting at the edge, were three chipmunks, garbed in sweaters. The shortest of the three gazed up at Rodney with an apologetic look.

"We're sorry," he said.

Meanwhile, the one in a blue sweater with black rimmed glasses peered over the edge at the puddle of smoothie spread out over the floor.

"uh... Uh..." Rodney stammered, fumbling with the words he wanted to say but couldn't get out. Sitting before him were three of the worlds most talented singing sensations. The Chipmunks.

The one in a Red sweater with a big, bold, yellow 'A' on it, folded his arms over his chest. "What's the matter? Chipmunk got your tongue?" he said with an accusing look.

Rodney cleared his throat and tried again, "Hrmhmm, I'm fine thanks." he said, trying hard not to make a big deal out of the fact superstars were talking to him calmly as if he walked by every day.

The next few seconds seemed long and were awkward, Rodney shifted uncomfortably while the three chipmunks fidgeted.

"Okay then... it's time to go home boys," David said, clapping his hands together before he reached over for the plastic bag of groceries, a stick of celery hanging out the top.

Rodney remembered the David's name at the last second.

"Uh, sorry for that Mr Seville..." he said, trailing off out of embarassment.

"Don't worry about it," with that, the Chipmunks jumped down off the table and began to follow David. The one in the green sweater, Theodore, glanced back over his shoulder at the smoothie puddle regretfully before turning his head back around.

As the four stars left the court, Rodney let out a breath he'd been holding onto, his knuckles were white from clenching his hands into fists for so long and he let out a shuddering breath.

"I met... super stars... wow" he whispered before remembering why he'd come, spinning a one-eighty on the spot before marching towards the north exits.

Rodney opened the doors, the hinges groaned in protest as rust was grated off the metal. They swung closed behind him with a clanging sound that echoed around the dark building. Dead potted plants sat in the corners where they had once brought cheer to the room they now brought concern. The place looked highly unsanitary and Rodney could smell something that seemed a lot like feces.

His worn out sneakers crunched over the dirty carpet as he made his way over to the only door that lead deeper into the building as the peice of paper he'd picked up from the job's agency instructed. The way the employer had left the note was odd but Rodney was desparate for the money, it said he'd be paid well for his work.

Taking a deep breath as he stopped in front of the timber door with a cracked blue paint coat, he reached out slowly, his hand firmly gripping the metallic handle before he pushed down and forward. The door swung open easily with a creak, and revealed what looked like a laboratory.

Standing in the midst of beakers and retort stands was a man hunched over, busily running over papers on a desk. His filthy white labcoat was still bright enough to contrast heavily with the dark room.

"Um... excuse me?" Rodney asked hesitantly, not really wanting to distract the man from his work.

With a jolt, the man, obviously a scientist of sorts, stood fully upright. He spun around to face Rodney and grinned showing oddly white teeth in contrast to his soot covered face and windswept hair style. The blond hair covered under soot and grime.

"You must be Rodney from the Agency! They said you'd be prompt and here you are! My boy are you a life saver!" the man said suddenly, his excited and cheerful manner putting Rodney off momentarily until he realized that his new employer had his hand outstretched.

Taking the hand and shaking it Rodney smiled.

"I need you to sign some papers, but once you do that we can start. You'll work three hours a day, twice a week and get two hundred smackaroos for it."

Shuffling over to another table, he brushed away papers with complex drawings and maths equations until he found what he was looking for and pulled a pen from one of his deep pockets.

"This just says that you accept responsiblity for any maladies you obtain while working here, it's normal for laboratories across the globe to put this out so we don't loose our jobs."

He pushed the biro into Rodney's hand and patted him on the back roughly before turning back to his papers and the test tube with a clear substance in it.

Rodney looked down at the papers and skimmed over the small print. Picking out keywords of importance before nodding and signing his name in the corner of both sheets.

"Wonderful wonderful!" the scientist cried out behind Rodney, causing him to jump a few inches off the floor in shock.

"I'll take those, welcome aboard Rodney, I'm Professor Walkins, just call me 'Prof' though."

With that, the Professor took the papers, shuffled them and put them into a sliding drawer before turning back to Rodney and grinning.

"I'm working on something really exciting and important, but I have to clean myself up and meet my funder for lunch. If you could tidy the place up and put this test tube away in that storage freezer of there-" he pointed to a refridgerator over in the corner, "-that'd be most helpful my boy! Then you can do what you want to help out, tidy my papers, organize my equipment and so on. Then feel free to go home. Here's the money in advance, and I'm off." With that, he shoved a wad of cash into Rodney's hands and waltzed off into another room.

Staring down at the money, Rodney couldn't believe it. He'd not even needed an interview and was getting well paid for easy work.

Stuffing the money into a pocket with care, Rodney began to tidy up the papers, stacking them up into neat piles and putting a paper weight on each to keep them from blowing about. Then he organized the equipment that was spread out over the dozen or so desks.

Stopping for a few minutes, Rodney admired his work thus far. The work area looked a lot better already.

His eyes suddenly fell on the test tube with the clear liquid, he walked over and carefully picked it up, running his index finger over the rim as he looked around for a stopper.

Unbeknownst to him, a small fur slipped off his finger and into the tube, sizzling into the liquid and vanishing as if it never existed.

Giving up on the stopper, Rodney walked around the maze of desks and made his way towards the storage area. To avoid what looked like gas canisters, Rodney moved closer to the wall and approached a sink.

He stepped from the filthy carpet and onto the linoleum. His foot came down on a puddle of something thin and slippery and before he could even put his toes down, he slipped. His hands went up in their air, trying to find something to hold onto the prevent the inevitable before the back of his head crashed into the ground with a thud. Groaning, he started to see lights in his vision, the edges fading to black. Then he noticed the test tube of the liquid the Professor had worked on, the last thing Rodney felt, was the glass smashing on his chin and something wet gushing into his mouth before he succumbed to unconsciousness.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

_Four hours later..._

"Daaaaaaaave," Alvin began to whine as the extraordinary family walked past a store with high-tech gizmos and gadgets in the showcase out front.

"No Alvin." David responded emotionless. This was the third time that day Alvin had tried to stop the march through town so he could get a look at some new gaming hardware. David was against the fact they even had one of those darned Xbox 360's in his living room, but knew he couldn't remove it without paying hell for it first.

As they passed, Alvin dawdled, trying to get a glimpse up through the glass, but to no avail, being six inches high had so many disadvantages, this was one of them.

David lead the three chipmunks further down the strip until he came to the glass doors of the Pharmecists. With an approving nod, he turned to his three mischeivous boys.

"Behave, we're going to get a present for the girls then we'll go home, kapeesh?"

He waited until the fuzz covered faces that were aimed up at him nodded up and down in response before he stepped towards the glass doors. With a whoosh the panels of glass slide open allowing the four entance.

The first thing Theodore noticed was the smell of cleaning agents, it tickled his sensitive nose and he sneezed upon stepping past the threshold, the claws on his hindpaws clicking on the polished floor.

The four males made their way over to the far left of the pharmecy, where David knew the perfumes and alike were neatly tucked away behind glass doors.

The three boys at his heels kept close together, not causing mischeif, much to David's releif. They looked up at the tall racks of medicines and tonics as they passed, the halogen lighting glaring off the almost too-polished flooring.

They stopped at their destination and David knelt down, looking at his kids faces.

"Alright guys, let's pick out something nice." he said with a smile, reaching down, he flattened his hands so the three chipmunks could stand on his palms.

Once up, they all began inspecting the, rather small, selection of perfumes and various other products. Each boy had set their eyes upon a small, inexpensive bottle of perfume they thought the girls might like. David, unsure of what he should get, decided he'd just buy all three, the boys could sort out the problem themselves.

With that, he reached into the glass case, collected each small glass bottle the chipmunks had selected and walked over to the counter at the back of the building.

His boys scampered up onto the bench and beat him to slamming their paws on the little waiting bell. Alvin leant back and had a smug grin.

"Beat you guys, guess you're all too slow for the Alvinator." he said, finishing with a chuckle.

While he boasted, an worn out teen trudged out from the back rooms and stopped behind the counter.

"Hello Mr Seville, kids. Is that all you're getting?" she asked, clearly bored.

"Yes, can you pack them into a paper back please? We don't want to ruin the surprise," David replied, putting the glass bottles down on the surface of the counter before fishing around in his pocket for his wallet.

The bottles were carefully wrapped in some bubble-wrap before being gently slipped into a paper bag, the top was rolled up and pinched to keep it from opening upon its own. David forked over the money and waited for his change.

He dropped the quarters into his wallet and put it back into his pocket before retieving the paper bag.

"Come on boys, let's go home." he said, with a smile to the teen before leaving the shop.

Pain. That was all Rodney could process in his hazy mind as his eyes cracked open a fraction. Bright light blinded him, causing him to close them once again.

His head throbbed, the back of it ached with the pain of an impact, his forehead with the pain of something much ore painful, it stung unlike the back of his head.

Opening his eyes slowly, he struggled to see past the haze of his clouded vision at the world around him. he could see blue and green, white, and some greys, but none of it made sense to him.

Voices. He could hear someone talking. No, a group of someones.

Rodney tilted his head in the direction he thought they were, trying to make out who was coming, if they'd see him. But his vision got worse as the pain grew. He cringed, whimpering as he held his forehead, feeling something warm and sticky beneath his palm.

The voices came again, but Rodney was unable to understand what they said, his mind was to focused on the pain, the intense pain.

He struggled to stay conscious, but slipped back into the darkness once more, his arm falling limp at his side.

"Dave!" Simon cried out, point out at a patch of red and brown on the snow.

Alvin turned at the sound of his older brother calling out, looked at Simon with a slightly anxious expression before tracing the pointing finger to the patch of what was unmistakibly blood, with something, or worse, someone in it.

David, having being softened up over the past year or so by his six adopted children, didn't waste a moment hesitating. He rushed over the snow, the three chipmunks in tow. Theodore sinking so much that he had to stop and walk upright, wading through the snow.

As David came to a stop he shuddered. In the snow lay a chipmunk, its forehead with a rather nasty cut on it, its left paw covered in the red liquid while the rest of it soaked into the snow.

He waited, holding his breath as he watched the small rodent, then heaved a sigh of releif as its chest rose unsteadily.

"Its alive... oh..." he thought.

The kids came to a stop and stared, seeing one of their own in such a state caused Theodore to tear up, Simon putting his arm around the youngest brother's shoulders while Alvin shuddered in shock.

"Who would do this?" Alvin asked, looking up at David for his answer.

"That's not the point Alvin," Simon said, shaking Alvin's shoulder.

"You're going to help him aren't you Dave?" Theodore asked, almost begging the man to do something as he bordered on crying, the tears still forming in the corners of his bright green eyes.

David was torn, he couldn't say no to Theodore, it'd break his heart. But they didn't know this chipmunk, and who knows where it came from.

But the look in Theodores eyes, and the tone he had used were the ultimate deciding factors.

He quickly retreived a novel and a roll of paper towel from his grocery bag. Tearing the paper towel , he placed it on the novel, then gently lifted the chipmunk up off the ground, trying not to change its position much in case there were broken bones.

Then, lowering the injured chipmunk onto the paper towel, he wrapped it up and then lifted the novel, wedging it between his arm and chest to keep the rodent from falling.

"Quick, we have to get back home and call a doctor." David said.

Wasting no time, the four left the town immediately, making their way back to the unit David lived in with as much haste as they dared.

"If it dies in my arms... Theodore will be crushed... I can't let that happen!" David thought as they speed walked down the pavement.

Rodney opened his eyes slowly, winced at the glare of light then close them tightly again. Remembering the last time he'd opened his eyes and the coldness on his back, he sank into the warmth of whatever it was he was laying on now.

He heard a door open and finally allowed his eyes to open a smidge, he could see he was in a building, a house. Then he noticed it wasn't his, the walls weren't torn or cracking and the ceiling was just as good looking too.

He lowered his gaze and saw he was under a green quilt, it was warm under it, not too hot or cold, just right.

Keeping his eyes open just that tiny fraction so they could adjust to the light, he listened intently.

"You're lucky you found him when you did Mr Seville, he wouldn't have lasted much more than another forty-five minutes with a wound like that."

The voice sounded official, a stranger but someone who knew something about what they were talking about.

"Thanks Doctor Sanchester," he heard someone else say. That voice was familiar to him.

Another door closed rather loudly before Rodney could pick up the conversation again.

"... and don't let him do anything that will strain him, he has to take one of those pills for the next three days to keep the wound from getting infected and other than that he should be fine. The only other ailment I saw was a nasty bump on the back of his head."

Rodney heard a heavier door close this time and silence ensued. Giving him time to examine the room as he opened his eyes a little more.

Up on the wall to his right, behind a bed with a Red quilt, was a poster of a racing car.

Across, to the right of the doorway was a dresser, likely filled with clothes. A few things lay ontop of the dresser, an alarm clock that appeared somewhat dusty and some knick-knacks.

Suddenly, the white door began to inch open and Rodney saw the top of a head begin to poke past it.

"Oh, you're awake,"

The door opened completely and Rodney gasped, David Seville was standing in the doorway.

Suddenly, memories rushed at Rodney, from when and how long ago he couldn't tell.

"W-Where am-" Rodney cut short, his heart pounded.

"My voice!" he cried out suddenly, sitting upright in the bed.

David moved over to the bed and Rodney realized that something was most horribly wrong. The man was a giant compared to him.

Raising an eyebrow, David asked, "What!? What's wrong?"

Now Rodney began to panic, his chest rose and fell rapidly as he began to try and make sense of everything.

"I'm all high pitched and sqeaky!"

"Aren't all you talking Chipmunks like that?"

Rodney froze, holding his breath.

"Chip-Munk?"

He then took the time to look down and saw his chest was covered in a light tan fur, almost fuzz. His hands were now paws as were his feet. He no longer had short, blunt nails but sharper, curved claws that chipmunks used to scale trees and grip surfaces in general.

Turning his head slightly he could see the beginnings of a tail he hadn't even noticed, the bushy appendage seemed lifeless while it was pressed agianst the sheets of the bed.

The majority of his body was covered in a brown coat of fur that shone at the right angle in light, two stripes of tan ran up his back, ending near his shoulders.

As his heart began to race again, he reached up and accidentally pressed a touch too hard on his forehead, causing him to cringe in pain.

He'd felt a bandage wrapped around his forehead before the pain however which caused him to recall a breif moment of consciousness during the time he couldn't account for.

The spot he'd touched was slightly damp, the blood was beginning to seep through it.

"Are... Are you okay?" David asked, worry flashing across his face.

Just then, as Rodney was about to answer with a smart reply, they both heard a voice.

"... am I allowed to have Toaster Waffles for dinner Da-"

Theodore was standing in the doorway, looking over at Rodney with what looked like shock. His Emerald eyes fixed on Rodney, who'd been sleeping soundly in his bed for over twelve hours.

"No Theodore, I'll make us all something in a moment. Where's Alvin and Simon?" David asked.

Theodore looked down at the recently vacuumed carpet.

"Alvin dissappeared with Brittany and Simon is playing checkers with Jeanette..."

"What about Eleanor?"

"Ummm..."

"Theodore?"

"She's in the bathroom."

There was an awkward silence, no one spoke until Rodney groaned, his head throbbing. Theodore looked up again and waddled over to the side of the bed, where he leaned towards Rodney.

"Are you okay?" he asked, ignoring David for the moment, his pink nose twitching every so often.

Another memory, of Rodney being apologized to by Theodore after he'd slipped on spilt smoothie came to Rodney's attention before he answered.

"I-I..." Would they beleive him?

"I'm okay thanks." Rodney finished, deciding not to worry the little chipmunk at his side.

He shot a glance up at David who seemed to catch on. Theodore smiled, seemingly satisfied with the answer before he quickly rushed from the room on all fours, obviously to find the others.

Once the sound of his paws pattering across the floorboards grew faint, David turned back to Rodney.

"This is getting trippy. What's up with you?" he asked, concern washing over his face as Rodney laid back.

Rodney stretched his arm then yawned, "I'm not sure... I need time to think about it."

David stood up and gave Rodney another look before he left the room, once Rodney could here pots and pans banging together he slipped out of the small bed, obviously custom tailored for the chipmunks.

He walked over to the closet, a mirror set into it would confirm everything he already knew. He kept on his hind-legs and stopped.

Staring back at him was a chipmunk for all the world cared. One that spoke English and who was not a child. One with a full human education.

"What did I do to deserve this?" he moaned softly.


End file.
